The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Air is drawn into an engine through a throttle and distributed to a plurality of cylinders through an intake manifold of an intake system. Fuel is mixed with the intake air to create an air/fuel (A/F) mixture. The A/F mixture is combusted within cylinders of the engine to generate drive torque. More specifically, combustion reciprocally drives pistons that rotate a crankshaft to provide torque output from the engine.
Fuel is delivered to the cylinders by a fuel system that may include a fuel rail and a plurality of fuel injectors. Combustion within the cylinders is controlled by an ignition system that may include a plurality of ignition coils and a plurality of spark plugs. Exhaust gases are expelled from the cylinders and out of the engine through an exhaust system that may include an exhaust manifold and a catalytic converter.
The engine may include one or more banks of cylinders. An engine with one bank may be referred to as an inline engine because of the straight orientation of its cylinders. In an inline engine, each piston may be attached to a different crankpin on the crankshaft. Each of the plurality of cylinders may include a fuel injector that supplies the cylinder with fuel from a common fuel rail. Additionally, each of the plurality of cylinders may include a spark plug that supplies the cylinder with spark, and an ignition coil that supplies the spark plug with voltage.
An engine with two banks may be referred to as a V-type engine because of the angled orientation of its cylinders. The two banks may be aligned at an acute angle (i.e. less than 90°). For example, a V-6 engine may include two banks of three cylinders each. In a V-type engine, one piston from each cylinder bank may be attached to each crankpin on the crankshaft. In other words, two pistons may be attached to each crankpin.
A V-type engine is typically smaller than an inline engine of similar displacement. However, in V-type engines each ignition coil in the cylinder bank may share a common ignition fuse that is different from one or more fuses associated with the fuel injectors in the cylinder bank. Therefore, when the ignition fuse of a cylinder bank fails, the corresponding fuel injectors (operating on a different fuse) may continue injecting fuel. The injecting of fuel into cylinders that include inoperable ignition coils due to the failed ignition fuse may result in decreased performance, increased emissions, and/or damage to engine system components such as the catalytic converter.